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Firm Spotlight: FBO Strategies

Firm Spotlight: FBO Strategies

A first-hand look at our original founding firm

by The Ridgeback Group

Overview

Rich people are in the business of keeping their money and growing. If something works for them, why isn’t every American trying to do it?

FBO Strategies LLC’s slogan is “Changing the Paradigm in Wealth Management.” But it could just as well be “Must Love Dogs.” After all, founder and CEO Keith Friedman says that’s something he looks for in new partners, clients, and employees. “We look for partners that have similar values to us,” he says. “We usually want their family to come first. And we want people who want big slobbery dogs — it might sound weird, but when you own a big slobbery dog, you’re picking up after them, you’re cleaning vomit, there’s hair everywhere. But you’re doing it for this thing that loves you.”

 

That sense of love and ethics — of doing the right thing because it’s the right thing — is what distinguishes FBO Strategies, and why they’re one of The Ridgeback Group’s flagship, founding partners. It’s born of Friedman’s own less-than-ideal experiences in the world of wealth management. (Interestingly, he actually got his start before that, as a research analyst for a Fortune 100 company.) “I learned how unethical the industry is,” he says of his early jobs in finance, citing contracts that went unhonored, among other things.

Keith's dogs Ruby and Walter enjoying some downtime (and cuddles) together.

So he decided to build his own shop, centering on being honorable to his clients, and offering them full transparency (including how much the firm gets paid), as embodied by the name, which stands for “For the Benefit Of.” Over time, he came to feel that there was something fundamentally wrong in the life insurance market — specifically, the idea that the average person should buy term life insurance, and permanent life insurance is only for the wealthy. “That’s the most ass-backward analysis I’ve ever heard,” he says now. “Rich people are in the business of keeping their money and growing. If something works for them, why isn’t every American trying to do it?”

 

After years of hard work, he feels like he’s built a model to provide the benefits of permanent life insurance — including its use as an asset — and with Ridgeback’s help, he wants to scale that model to reach an even larger audience. “I did the initial math, but I didn’t have the tools to test it against real-life situations,” he says. “That’s where Eric Eklund, Esq., CEPA, and The Ridgeback Group team comes into play, to build the platform and deliver it to the rest of the world.” The partnership is also built on a foundation of mutual trust, not to mention respect for clients — after all, Friedman believes you can deliver more value to clients, including greater returns, by refusing to charge a fee. (As Friedman notes, very few money managers can actually beat the market, and if you’re not beating the market, you’re not providing value. So why charge for it?)

 

These values were instilled in Friedman as a young man at a sleepaway camp in the Berkshires, led by the pioneering owner Bert Margolis. “It was wonderful,” Friedman says. “He talked about things that other men in my life didn’t always talk about: fair play, treating people with respect, winning with honor. And that’s stuck with me my entire life.” This includes Friedman’s pre-finance stints doing, as he puts it, every dirty job you can imagine. “We lose sense of how hard that is for people who do it,” he says, and he values partners who can recognize the privilege of working from a desk in an air-conditioned office.

The only thing that makes CEO/Founder of FBO Strategies Keith Friedman smile more than this is when he's helping his clients.

Keith and his teammates celebrating their Old Man Basketball League (OMBL) championship... and a relatively injury-free season.

Friedman also gets perspective from his hobbies, which include being a Star Warsdork (“I’m not smart enough to be a nerd,” he jokes), bringing in clients every year to watch the Final Four at nearby Bobby V’s, and playing pickup basketball at least twice a week at the JCC in his hometown of Stamford, Connecticut. “When you play basketball, you learn so much about a person,” he says. “You learn if they’re selfish. You learn if they’re a good teammate. You learn if they’re skilled, if they hustle. You also learn if they understand the game. It’s a great place to develop clients and friends”

 

Among his regular hooping partners: Dan Murphy, MBA, CLU, The Ridgeback Group’s co-founder. The two have developed a successful working relationship and, just as importantly, a true friendship — Dan has supported Keith’s charitable endeavors, attended his son’s bar mitzvah, and (oh, yeah) helped Keith dramatically grow his business. In each other, Dan and Keith have found exactly the type of teammate you want to link up with on and off the court.

 

In the office, Keith relies on a small team of all-stars, including Joshua Marcus, who he says “takes care of everything.” Seth Wasserman, who helps design advanced insurance plans, and his wife, Rachel, who has supported him throughout his more than 20 years running FBO — “I view us as a little business,” he says. And, of course, there’s his late dog, Rufus, who even did his part to help grow the business — a man Rufus and Keith met in a dog park and eventually became a client.

 

As the old saying goes: a dog really is a wealth manager’s best friend.

Keith with Dan Murphy (The Ridgeback Group)

Keith and Josh Marcus (Jazmarc Services). Partners, confidants, and friends.